September 5, 1S72. ] 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



185 









WEEKLY 



CALENDAR. 















Day 



of 



Month 



Day 

 of 



Week. 



SEPTEMBER 5—11, 1872. 



Average Tempera- 

 ture near London. 



Rain in 

 43 years. 



Sun 

 Rises. 



Sun 

 Sets. 



Moon 

 Rises. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Clock 

 after 

 Sun. 



Day 



of 



Year. 



5 

 6 

 7 

 8 

 9 

 10 

 11 



Th 

 P 



s 



Sun 

 M 

 Tu 

 W 



Worksop Horticultural Show. 



Twilight ends 8.36 p.m. 



15 Sunday after Trinity. 



Glasgow, Dublin, and Nottingham Horticul- 

 tural Shows. 



Day. 

 70.4 

 70.2 

 70.3 

 69.4 

 69.1 

 69.7 

 68.7 



Night. 

 47.1 

 46.8 

 47.5 

 48.0 

 48.1 

 45.5 

 47.0 



Mean. 

 58.8 

 58.5 

 58.9 

 58.7 

 51.6 

 57.6 

 57.8 



Days. 

 18 

 20 

 19 

 19 

 19 

 21 

 11 



m. h. 

 20 ai 5 



22 5 



23 5 

 25 5 



27 5 



28 5 

 30 5 



m. h. 

 36af6 

 34 6 

 32 6 

 SO 6 

 28 6 

 25 6 

 23 6 



m. h. 

 41 7 

 55 8 

 10 10 

 29 11 



after. 



7 2 

 21 3 



m. b. 

 47 af 7 



1 8 

 18 8 

 39 8 



5 9 

 41 9 

 34 10 



Days. 

 2 



3 



4 

 5 

 6 

 5 



8 



m. s. 

 1 85 



1 55 



2 15 

 2 35 



2 56 

 S 16 



3 37 



249 

 250 

 251 

 252 

 253 

 254 

 255 



From observations taken near London during forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 69.7° ; and its night temperature 

 47.1°. The greatest heat was 91", on the 7th, 1868 ; and the lowest cold 28°, on the 7th, 1856. The greatest fall of rain was 1.27 inch. 



THE ERFURT SEED-GROWEES.— No. 2. 



ONTINUING up the road which leads round 

 the walls, I at last arrive at the most ex- 

 treme of Mr. Benary's fields, which, when 

 viewed from the httle rising ground over 

 which it is necessary to pass in order to 

 reach them, look most charming. Here, in 

 two parallel strips, were between from six- 

 teen to eighteen acres of Asters, pre-eminent 

 among which was the Pasony variety. The 

 beauty of the plants, either when closely 

 examined or seen from a distance, was very great. Each 

 flower was large and well filled, and the probability of 

 the seed coming from them being true seemed to be 

 insured by the immense quantities which had been rooted- 

 out and lay strewn along the middle of the paths. Of 

 these alone the seed must at worst have been worth a 

 considerable amount. . To the true lover of flowers such 

 a wholesale weeding seems at best a cruel and wasteful 

 expedient to secure what is unfortunately necessary. 

 Beyond these were some more fields holding Zinnias, 

 Scabiosas, African and French Marigolds, Schizanthus, 

 Dracocephalurn, Malope grandiflora, and other less im- 

 portant plants. 



Retracing my steps to the field where was the collection 

 of Pansies, and turning round to the left I came upon an- 

 other field of about six acres, where there was also nothing 

 but Asters. It would be difficult to say whether these 

 or the ones I had first seen looked the finer. Here were 

 the Dwarf Chrysanthemum, Victoria, Dwarf Bouquet, 

 and Perfection varieties. One called the Schiller Aster 

 was remarkable for the number of flowers, which in one 

 plant, taken at haphazard, alone amounted to fifty. Of 

 the effect produced by the deeper red and purple varieties 

 when seen in such large masses it is impossible to convey 

 any idea on paper, but the impression made upon me by 

 the sight of the Nasturtiums seemed to be entirely eclipsed 

 on first looking over this field. 



Here ends the description of Mr. Benary's grounds, 

 and on reviewing them in my own mind I must say I 

 was struck with the extraordinarily neat manner in which 

 they were kept. The intense neatness of the dressed 

 grounds in front of the granary, and also that of the 

 Palm house, excited my admiration every time I saw 

 them, and one can hardly help thinking that a business 

 in which so much attention can be given to a minor 

 point must in other respects be in a high degree 

 prosperous. 



Re-entering the town by the Briihler Thor, and keeping 

 up towards the eastern side of the town, I reach the 

 main street called the Anger, which in German means 

 an open piece of pasture land, and in olden times con- 

 sisted of that, and was the spot where the sale of wood 

 was carried on. At the end of the Anger is a some- 

 what narrow street that leads to another gate called the 

 Krampfer Thor. Going out by this I arrive upon the 

 road which leads to Buttstedt, and on which, at the dis- 

 tance of about a mile from the town, is the establishment 



No. 597.— Vol. XXIII., New Series. 



of Messrs. Haage & Schmidt, one of the most noted in 

 Germany, and a most worthy rival to that of Mr. Benary. 

 On both sides of the way are to be seen quantities of 

 Petunias, Asters, and Nasturtiums, and in some places 

 fields of Poppies, which are grown here for crushing, 

 looking now, most certainly, very gaunt, brown, and 

 melancholy, and very different from what they did six 

 weeks before, when then milk-white petals, splashed with 

 purple at the base, waved up and down with every gust 

 of the summer breeze. On the right-hand side, at about 

 half a mile from the Krampfer Thor, and very near the rail- 

 way station, is a large white building. This is the house of 

 the brother of Mr. Schmidt, who employs himself in trying 

 to preserve the evanescent beauty of flowers by drying 

 them, and afterwards forming them into bouquets. Con- 

 tinuing on across the railway I at last come to the object 

 of my visit, the position of which is indicated from afar 

 by an imposing-looking lightly-coloured house. This is 

 the dwelling and granaries of Messrs. Haage & Schmidt 

 combined, the character of which is made unrnistakeable 

 by the numerous glass houses, seed sacks, and the busy 

 throng of working people around. 



Going round by the farther side I enter upon a long 

 path which for some way is bounded on the right-hand 

 ty a small plot of newly-made dressed ground, on the 

 left by the side of the house. Beyond the point where 

 these terminate appear on both sides successive ranges 

 of half-sunken pits and glass houses running at right 

 angles to the path. The majority of those on the right 

 contained some of the smaller kinds of Palms, but there 

 was one containing some very fine Balsams, and another 

 holding only Pelargoniums. Towards the end were a 

 very fine collection of Cacti, some of which still continued 

 in flower. Whether the importation of these rarities is 

 a profitable business Messrs. Haage & Schmidt alone can 

 tell; but to judge from the numbers that were here 

 assembled one might be led to suppose that so numerous 

 an importation would not be permitted if such were not 

 the case. The succession on this side was closed by a 

 number of young Coniferas. 



The first objects I saw coming up on the left-hand side 

 were a great number of different plants placed under a 

 framework of rough poles, which in front was thickly 

 overgrown with Virginian Creeper. Amongst these were 

 conspicuous — for it would be impossible to mention all 

 with any comfort to the reader — Crinums, Agapanthuses, 

 Cyrtanthuses, Buphones, Brunsvigias, Swansonias, Be- 

 gonias, and innumerable Palms. Here, too, were some 

 Ferns, including Dicksonia antarctica and others, all of 

 which seemed to have suffered from the intense heat that 

 was for a few days so prevalent here about a month 

 previously. 



Nearer the house were seven glass structures, all capable 

 of being heated if necessary, and an eighth was in course 

 of construction. The most remarkable of the plants con- 

 tained in them were — those in the first, which consisted 

 of Ferns, Caladiums, Musas, and Ciclanthus; in the 

 second, Eucodonopsis, Na?gelias, and Caladiums ; in the 

 third, a collection of Cacti, Musas, and Vallotas ; and in 



No. 1249— Vol. XLVIII., Old Series. 



